Migrate from TOPdesk to Zoho Desk

TOPdesk Calls (incidents and service requests) map directly to Zoho Desk Tickets. The Call status, priority, operator assignment, and custom fields migrate to their Zoho Desk equivalents. We resolve the TOPdesk operator as the Zoho Desk agent by email match and apply the appropriate department scope during import. The original TOPdesk Call number is preserved in a custom field for audit reference.

TOPdesk Call activities (comments, status changes, internal notes) map to Zoho Desk Ticket Threads. Thread direction (incoming from requester, outgoing from operator) is preserved using Zoho Desk's channel field. Internal notes from TOPdesk map to Zoho Desk private comments where the visibility flag is set correctly.

TOPdesk Changes exist in three forms: Simple Changes (status=2), Extensive Changes (status=3), and Requests for Change (status=1, phase 2). Zoho Desk does not have a native RFC object. We assess change complexity during scoping: simple changes with minimal activity history map to Tickets with a custom change_type field; complex changes with authorization steps, milestones, and multiple activities map to a Zoho Desk custom module (Project) configured before migration. The change subtype (Simple/Extensive/RFC) is preserved as a picklist value.

TOPdesk hardware assets map to Zoho Desk Products with custom fields capturing serial number, location, status, and purchase date. We resolve parent-child asset links by writing the parent reference after both records exist in the destination, using recursive dependency ordering to avoid foreign-key violations on import.

TOPdesk software and licence assets map to Zoho Desk Products with custom fields for licence key, expiry date, assigned quantity, and the linked hardware asset reference. Licence assignments that reference specific hardware assets are resolved during import using the parent asset lookups established in the hardware import phase.

TOPdesk network components (routers, switches, firewalls, access points) map to Zoho Desk Products with custom fields for IP address, MAC address, firmware version, and the parent asset reference. The network component hierarchy is reconstructed using the same recursive traversal approach as the general asset tree.

TOPdesk Configuration Management items store IT infrastructure components and link to assets, people, and locations. We map them to Zoho Desk Products with custom fields for CI identifier, CI type, and the linked asset reference. Configuration items with no hardware equivalent become standalone Products with CI-specific custom fields.

TOPdesk Known Error Cards store a problem cause and a workaround solution linked to a Problem. Zoho Desk has no native known-error object. We map Known Error Cards to Zoho Desk Solutions articles in a dedicated category, preserving the problem description as the article title and the workaround as the article body. The linked problem reference is stored in a custom field for traceability.

TOPdesk Person records (requesters) map to Zoho Desk Contacts. The person's name, email, phone, department, and location custom fields migrate to their Zoho Desk equivalents. We use email as the dedupe key during import. If a Person record has no email, we generate a placeholder and flag the record for the customer's admin to complete post-migration.

TOPdesk Operators (agents) map to Zoho Desk Agents. We resolve by email match against the destination Zoho Desk agent list. Operator group memberships map to Zoho Desk Teams, which we create before the agent import phase. Any Operator without a matching Zoho Desk Agent is held in a reconciliation queue for the customer's admin to provision before record import resumes.

TOPdesk Freely Definable Objects are custom entity types used by organizations for specialized tracking. We assess each Free object during scoping: those that map to existing Zoho Desk objects (Accounts, Contacts, Products) are merged accordingly; those with unique schemas are pre-created as Zoho Desk custom modules with equivalent custom fields before migration. The customer's TOPdesk module licensing determines which Free objects are actually present in the source data.

Attachments linked to Calls, Changes, and Assets migrate with full metadata (filename, size, content type) and the binary file where the TOPdesk API provides access. Zoho Desk's native Zwitch migration tool does not transfer attachments, so we use the Zoho Desk REST API for binary upload and link the attachment to the correct Ticket or Product record. This is one of the key reasons to use an API-led migration rather than the native Zwitch tool.